Remember the scene in Harry Potter when he turns off the hectic shopping street and into Diagon Alley?
Well that happened to the Missus and me today. We'd booked a tour around the almost-hidden Leeds Library, the oldest subscription library in the UK.
Opened in 1758 Leeds Library is like a wooden-festooned time capsule stuffed with old tomes along hanging balconies.
We were gobsmacked by the contrast between the bustle of the busy city streets with the peace and quiet of this secretive Library.
So, entering a real wizards' alleyway, we saw spiral staircases....
Shelves of books from floor to ceiling.
Beautiful bookcases.
Thousands of hardbacks including familiar titles. Tales of the Unexpected!
Wooden ladders and high windows.
Marble mantles and clocks.
A basement like a labyrinth.
Stacks stored below the floor.
Old editions waiting to be rebound for posterity.
Serried spines as far as the eye can see.
Weighty folios piled in corners.
Then more familiar names. I saw the TV version of the Green Man only this Autumn.
Massive ledgers heaped to the rafters.
and then back upstairs to the public space.
Flecked with tables and chairs.
A place to unwind and read.
Alcoves and lecterns among the books.
The Golden Bough, Frazer's famous writings about myths and symbolism.
Sit and leaf.
Where, in the reading room, silence is the norm.
And then back out of Leeds' own Diagon into the modern world and its surging storm.
Have you been anywhere startlingly different like this readers?